Parks’ “Shaft”: A Tragedy or a Comedy Essay

Introduction

Interpretation in art forms are common and if the object that is interpreted is a well known classic or time tested creation then the perception of the interpreter reflects not only the psyche of that individual but also the outlook of the society at that point of time and space. Interpreting a classic from a text form to a visual form is no different. However, it is also important understand the nature of any movie. Any movie can be broadly divided into two categories. One is comedy and other is tragedy. To understand the genre of the movie one must recognize the definition of tragedy and comedy. The selected movie in the paper is 1971 successful classic ‘Shaft’.

Tragedy and Comedy

Tragedy is considered as an art form in the context of film, television or other performing arts that express the sufferings of the human being, physically or mentally. Though it is true that the sense that this form of presentation evokes depression, it is obvious that tragedy as a form of art is considered as hugely popular. The main approach of Tragedy is to show its audience the measures of suffering and the end result of suffering, which is almost always negative in this form of art.

In sharp contrast, ‘Comedy’ in film, television or other performing arts generally means a humorous discourse where the main intension is to entertain the audience. However, there are several adaptations of comedy are satire, humor or slap-stick is just a part of the entire genre. However, in the context of theatrical usage the definition of the term ‘comedy’ changes into a form of entertainment that shows the different between societies with mode of conflict and can be presented in several forms such as romantic comedy, black comedy, drama, adventure or simply action but the main idea of the genre ‘comedy’ is to evoke sense of hope among the audience no matter what the characters of the performance had gone through in the act. (Lamb, 223) The movie ‘Shaft’ is definitely of the ‘Action’ genre but it is needed to evaluate the movie to find out whether it is a comedy or not.

Movie Background

The film Shaft was released in July 2, 1971 and was distributed by the famous MGM studios. This movie with a runtime of 100 minutes was based on the screenplay and novel of John D.F. Black and Ernest Tidyman and was directed by Gordon Parks. (Johnson, i) The producer of the movie Shaft was Joel Freeman and the music was wonderfully composed by J. J. Johnson and Isaac Hayes. Music in this movie is a very interesting part and is aligned with the basic theme of this paper as it is composed on predominantly black themes with complete alignment with African American musical tradition. But before the movie is taken into consideration for analysis it would be most relevant to look into the aspect of racism and stereotypes within the perspective of the American society as a conflict between two societies, in this case the black society and the white community because to understand the movie it is important to understand the context of the movie. (Johnson, ix-xi) Additionally, it is obvious that to be eligible of becoming an Action and Adventure genre movie it s essential to have a good amount of action in terms of scene sequence and approach. This does not mean that there necessarily or fundamentally should be a huge amount of swashbuckling or gunfight scenes. A movie can well be an Action and Adventure genre movie if there is enough action or incidents happening around the main character. Another important aspect of an Action and Adventure genre movie is that it should have enough narrative formats that can be termed as simple. Shaft can well qualify as an Action and Adventure genre in this context of comedy variety.

The social conflict in the movie

One of the most compelling developments of our age is the recognition of multicultural of multiracial society and how they translate to each and every individual. The challenge is not just in recognizing other races but more importantly the culture and heritage of people must also be recognized. The emergence of African American Studies as an important field of study is a recognition of the struggle against racial discrimination and oppression (Giddings, 153-156). Peoples’ distrust or reservation of other races or cultures is to be expected: it is very natural to fear the unfamiliar. That is why there is a need for conscious and collective actions to change society. One of the most urgent concerns is the assurance of economic opportunities which should be considered an integral component of any social program to address the issue. The development of various alliance among groups within the community that have shown better success in eliciting response from the most distressed among African Americans: the youth and women. These efforts have efforts have achieved success because they have taken into consideration similar trends among other social that suffer marginalization. (Giddings, 56) This is a conflict of societies and as a movie ‘Shaft’ satisfies the norm of the term ‘Comedy’.

The movie as satire

This is the special essence of this movie. Shaft is predominantly black and all the perceptions and perspective presented in the movie is distinctively black in nature. This movie is specifically Afrocentric in presentation. It could be mentioned that this movie easily surpassed supplementary black stereotypes with its presentation of black gangsters and black activists at the same time along with urban junkies who are black. In the movie we see time and again that the central character Shaft is making it a point with specific measures that he is dead against racialism and all sorts of racial hypocrisy. This Afrocentrism appears in the movie in a special scene with special emphasis where it is seen that a detective of the police, Lt. Androzzi, is comparing Shaft’s skin color with a black pen. To this Shaft’s answer to this act is sharp and presents the scene with a satirist approach as he points a white cup and indicates that the police detective is not that much white either. It was almost as “what they were looking for all these days”. (Lamb, 327) This was no astonishment. This is because dialogues in the movie by John Shaft like “You are one wise Caucasian” (Johnson, 59) are more than what the black community expected from a movie of its time. Shaft appears to indulge everything that appears to be bearing the essence of the African American community in the movie. The pen and the cup scene is just a single example and it is enough to prove the point of the director and writers but it would be relevant to mention that such scenario and dialogues with ‘racial vengeance’ are tottered all over the movie in a humorous mode. Thus the movie was sure to entertain the audience from the very beginning and qualify as a Comedy.

Hope

The movie ‘Shaft’ became a runaway hit at the box office with a cumulative gross of about $12 million. (Johnson, ii) For a relatively small budget film this was a huge success. Additionally, the music score by Isaac Hayes won the best music award at the Academy Award ceremony. This proves the tremendous appeal this movie had on the mass psychology. The better part of the movie shows shaft fighting against allsorts of evils especially those with the undercurrent of undercover apartheid. The best part of this film is that the hero fights this evil while staying inside the parameters of the society in his own way and never revolted against the society. This was another huge reason for the acceptance of this movie among black youths. They never wanted to agitate openly and vigorously against the government for the better part of their life but wanted some way to release the undercurrent of frustration that they are suffering from the evil of inequality. Shaft provided them the route.

Conclusion

Shaft was that figure that every boy of African American origin wanted to be. This was their answer to racism. This was their response towards discrimination and inequality. The discrimination and inequality of the American society that they have taken head down and were not able to retaliate. They always wanted to retaliate and wanted so badly. Shaft was all answer to these reprisals, at least on the movie. No wonder ‘Shaft’ was a success and as a comedy it showed the world it potency as the audience found it entertaining in the context of a social difference and it was backed by humor and satire that ultimately gave the audience hope, all the essential ingredients of a successful comedy.

References:

Giddings, Paula. When and Where I Enter: The impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. Auckland: National Book Trust, 1994.

Johnson, Dale. Shaft: The Complete Screenplay. Auckland: National Book Trust, 1999.

Lamb, Davis. Cult to Culture: The Development of Civilization. Auckland: National Book Trust, 2004.